The invention relates to a spreadsheet application program which supports range references.
Commercially available spreadsheet programs, such as Lotus 1-2-3.TM. by Lotus Development Corporation, provide users with an electronic worksheet for organizing and manipulating data. Such a worksheet can, for example, be configured so that when displayed on a computer screen it looks and functions like a financial spreadsheet.
The worksheet typically consists of a rectangular grid of cells that provides a structure for entering and calculating data and for organizing and storing information. Each cell can store at least three types of data, namely, labels, values and formulas. Labels are text, such as "Sales" or "Inventory", which can be used to identify and visually organize the values that are entered in a worksheet. Values are numbers. Formulas are expressions that combine labels, values and cell references and functions to yield a label or value as a result.
In some previously available programs, formulas could include any combination of mathematical operations from simple arithmetic, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and exponentiation, etc., to advanced financial and statistical analysis. In such programs, when the user enters a formula into a cell, the program typically calculates the formulas result and displays that result for the cell. In addition, a formula can refer to a range of cells (i.e., a set of one or more contiguous cells) that contains data that the formula will process. For example, in 1-2-3.TM. one such function is referred to as the "at sum" function and has the following form: @SUM(&lt;&lt;range&gt;&gt;), where &lt;&lt;range&gt;&gt; specifies a range of cells. The @SUM function sums the values of the cells in the specified range to produce a result.
Many other functions, similar to the @SUM function, exist in currently available spreadsheet programs for processing data within a range of cells to produce a result. Such functions may be used in financial worksheets, for example, to compute such frequently needed financial statistics as net income, total operating expenses, average costs, to name a few.
Users frequently rely on spreadsheet programs to carry out what-if analyses, i.e., if we use this set of numbers what is the result?. With commercially available spreadsheet programs, a user typically carries out a what-if analysis by changing a series of numbers within the worksheet and reviewing the results of the subsequent worksheet recalculation. If the user wants to capture that new view of the worksheet, he must save it as a separate file or build a complex set of lookup tables. Each time the user wants to see how a new set of numbers or formulas would affect the worksheet, he must repeat this sequence of actions.